FIGHT! Facts & Rankings: Strikeforce Challengers 10

Strikeforce devoted some much-deserved airtime to women’s MMA tonight in Phoenix, Ariz., where Miesha Tate, Hitomi Akano, Carina Damm and Maiju Kujala squared off in a single-night tournament to determine the #1 challenger for the 135-pound crown. Check back later this morning for a full gallery of the night’s action.

At FIGHT! Magazine, we believe there is a need for a completely objective and unbiased ranking system for fighters to replace the myriad subjective rankings that have become skewed, in many instances, by fighter popularity. In an effort to address this issue FIGHT! Magazine brings you its computerized rankings system which takes into account a fighters strength of opponent, strength of performance, and frequency of activity.

Only one ranked fighter entered the cage tonight, and that was multi-year, multi-weight class veteran Joe Riggs. “Diesel” slid to #45 in our Welterweight Rankings following his loss to Jay Hieron but bounced back to #40 after his catchweight defeat of Louis Taylor, who enters our Middleweight Rankings at #84.

FIGHT! does not currently rank female MMA fighters but hopes to unroll comprehensive women’s rankings in the coming months.